4.6 billion years=age of the earth: surface is the heat of fusion
& radioactive

3.9 billion: the crust has cooled, mantel resting on magma and molten
core

3.5 billion: first unicellular fossils, although earliest life forms
may date from 3.8
note that this is remarkably early and rapid in terms of the hypothesis
of a chance encounter of the proper chemical agents of "life."

3.5-1.5 billion years: only anaerobic bacteria. eventual development
of the use of oxygen.
followed by a very rapid (and again surprisingly rapid) transition from
bacteria to cells with a nucleus (which are much larger, and oxygen users).
There are no real explanations for this rapid development
From this primitive cells with a nucleus: life as we know it, algies,
etc.

pre-cambrian: earliest known ice age

cambrian: 600 million years ago (trilobites, jawless fish. ice age)

.5 billion: atmospheric oxygen has increased to 21% which is a "fixed"
level. There is an explosion of pluricellular life forms with no signs
of the existence of prior forms.

pleistocene: 1.75 million 125,000 to 25,000: some extraordinary change
in the hominid situation: dramatic explosion in the human brain size.
no comparable evolutionary development of a major organ: Lumholtz: "the
most dramatic transformation of a major organ of a higher animal in the
entire fossil record." no one knows why. (McKenna: ingestion psychedelics!
psilocybin, or more exactly DIET in general)

1.7 million: extinction of SABER-TOOTH CATS. Perhaps a turning point
in hominid evolution? Hominids based in forest as was this cat: they could
no longer scavenge there and were obliged to go out into the savannah.
Increased danger of predation: selective pressure for larger body, etc.
1.6=homo erectus: fire
600,000=neanderthal takes separate evolutionary branch

(modern human beings develop: 100,000-30,000=Neandertal; 100,000=Cro-Magnon):
carves, paints caves, eventually lascaux. find traces in europe 40,000
years ago. 30,000=homo sapiens in europe, coming from western asia by
2 routes, one north of the mediterranean, and south of med. across the
straits of gibralter: carried along hunting reindeer, mammoths, horses.
perhaps they exterminated neanderthal ice age begins. term "ice age" usually
refers to this period. possibly 6-20 glaciation cycles during this period.
typical glaciation lasted 40,000-60,000 years; interglacial about 40,000.
modern horse & camel & elephant develop. horse and camel develop north
america, cross the bering straits to asia. elephants, bison, deer and
bear evolved in europe and asia, came to north america. in the interglacials
the grasslands shrunk and the herds moved north, hunters following them.)

Paleolithic "venus figures" across Europe to Siberia. These figures,
often (falsely) recuperated by matriarchy-theorists, are roughly 20,000
years before the establishment of agriculture.

holocene: 25,000-10,000 (humans hunted and tamed many animals. last
glacial retreat began around -20,000 it is around this time (-25,000)
that the transition from prey-to-predator is complete

PALEOLITHIC (-3,000,000 TO 9,000)
Bear Skull Sanctuaries of the circumpolar Bear Cults of the paleolithic,
are the "earliest evidence anywhere on earth of the veneration of a divine
being."
fire, handaxes, chopping tools: -1,500,000
spears: 400,00
flake tools: 250,000
humans enter north america: -20,000 (another dating, -10.000-7,000--for
the arrival of humans in the western hemisphere, and there was NOBODY
there before, unlike Europe and Neaderthal predecessor
-15,000: first evidence FIRE. A pyrites ball gouged from striking for
sparks in Belgium
-15,000: effective-at-distance weapons, bow
-12,000: Tassaili Plateau southern Algeria, rock-chipping: shamans, mushrooms
sprouting out of bodies and holding fistfuls.

mesolithic (-8,000-4,500): arrival new populations from the east,
they bring: bowls, arrows, domesticated dogs, fish nets. paleolithic/mesolithic
man already "master of nature" in sense of being most adaptable predator.
next great step is discovering means of altering the natural environment
for advantage=domestication of plants and animals, make fields from forests=agriculture.
agriculture in the middle east hill tops from -6,500 on.

agricultural tide out of fertile crescent into europe (4500-4000):
comes from the north ("danubian cultivators") & by the southern route
across gibralter

reconsider MAN THE HUNTER in relation to human-as-prey theory (evidence
for this other view in Ehrenreich's book BLOOD RITES), and a different
alottment of balance between men and women. Important difference of paradigm.

man the hunter yields to woman the grower (that work of tremendous
importance that man refuses and woman can do), and she in turn yields
to man the plower (traction plow is invented around 3,000 in tigris-euphrates
and Egypt) who installs definitively patrilinear organization, etc.

The HUNTER adapts poorly to FARMING but alright to transition as
HERDSMAN. PASTORALISM is a transitory mix of movement and fixity, of the
practice of hunting and agriculture. The conflict between the PEASANT
& the HERDSMEN is encoded in the story of Abel and Cain.

ANIMISM:
The land itself is sacred, alive: a living body.
This vision is associated with nomads, hunter-gatherers during the paleolithic/mesolithic.

TOTEMISM:
is an evolved strand of ANIMISM. Specific animal species are related to
a clan. "An immemorial covenant" between the clan and that species (Campbell)
Totemism is associated with tribal societies.

SHAMANISM:
Emerges out of animism/totemism
"samen"= Tungus of Siberia word: "one who is excited, moved, raised."
Also related to ancient Indian word? meaning "to heat oneself, or practise
austerity." Tungus verb, "To Know."
Shaman is the intermediary between spirit world (of nature) and the tribe.
(definition from Harner: "a man or woman who enters an altered state of
consciousness--at will--to contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality
in order to acquire knowledge, power, and to help other persons.")

Shamanism is the precursor of Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrinism and
Tantricism. ("Religions extend beyond Shamanism in every direction, just
as any religion extends beyond the mystical experience of its privileged
adherents."

In those situations where Shaman role taken on for the tribe by a
single individual: origin of the PRIEST and PRIEST CASTE. Shamanism corresponds
to TRIBE. Priest to STATE FORMATIONS. Shaman works in TRANCE. Priest dispenses
"THE ROUTINE PROPITIATORY ACTS OF ADORATION, PRAYER AND OFFERINGS." The
shift from Shaman to Priest = "a concomitant shift from possession to
solicitation, from spirit to god, from hut to temple."

[Another formulation of this same idea from Walsh: "Shamanic practices
appear primarily in simple, nomadic hunting and gathering societies. These
people rely very little on agriculture and have almost no social classes
or political organization. Within these tribes the shaman plays many roles,
both sacred and mundane: medicine man, healer, ritualistic keeper of the
cultural myths, medium, and master of spirits. With their many roles and
the power vacuum offered by a classless society, shamans exert a major
influence on their tribe and people....As societies become fixed rather
than nomadic, agricultural rather than foraging, and socially and politically
stratified rather than classless, shamanism as such seems to disappear.
In its place appear a variety of specialists, each of whom focuses on
one of the shaman's many roles. Thus, instead of shamans we find healers,
priests, mediums, and sorcerers/witches. These specialize respectively
in medical, ritual, spirit possession, and malevolent magic practices.
A contemporary Western parallel is the disappearance of the old medical
general practitioner, the G.P., and the appearance of diverse specialists."
(The one shaman role not absorbed: JOURNEYING/VOYAGING/TRAVELLING. Why?
Suppression of Shamanic practices by organized religions? Witches? During
19th century, in parts of Europe, it was a criminal offense to own a drum.)
Strong Shaman aspect of "returning to Paradise times," when we were not
separated from animal-natural-spirit world: return to the Garden, before
the historical rupture.]

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT:

In the more structured and hierarchical societies, religious rule
appears: THEOCRACIES, combining priesthood and government.
Out of this comes : "THE CHIEF IS DIVINE," he has a celestial lineage:
THE DIVINE KING. The first king of Tibet (Gna-K'ri-bstan-po) was said
to have come down a rope from heaven, and could go back that way (clear
transposing of shaman's Tree of Life, and all the ropes, chains, bridges
imagery)

INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE GROUPINGS: linguistic ancestry stretching
back to India. By the 1st century AD in Europe, a language is spoken that
goes back to EurAsia of 6000BC. A geographic base? West to East, just
North of the Black and Caspian Seas, stretching as far East as the Ural
River: this is what is called "PONTIC-CASPIAN REGION."
Marija Gimbutas' work (strong, matrilinear, agricultural, Neolithic societies,
overrun by patriarchal nomad hordes from the east.): expansion of Kurgan
people, attested by spread of Kurgan-type burial mounds)= INDO-EUROPEAN
REVOLUTION. Nomad hoardes from steppes--horses, war chariots--swamping
and cutting short this peaceful development. (Among others, see CHALICE
& BLADE, riane eisler)
Most profound Indo-European element = Horse. Was major social and religious
element. Male-dominated. Patrilinear descent. Clans. Warrior class. Have
recognizable divisions into Priest/Warriors/Herder-Cultivators. (Much
earlier, the SHAMAN DRUM called "HORSE," the steed that takes you to another
world.)

A resonance of SHAMANISM in Indo-European civilization = "the figure
of terrifying SOVEREIGN" = master of magic, the great binder. The Priest
Class embraced functions of sovereignty, combing legal order and magico-religious
roles. Voyaging in the Indo-Euro language complex, find curious groupings
around the root "REG":
Priest and King: Reg words
King = Sanskrit RAI, Latin REX, gaulis RIX, Old Irish RI. Which means
"ruler" = straight and sovereign. Ruler is a ruler, a straight-edge, but
also righteous, direct. Further resonances of meaning: "Reaching Out,"
which is the formal activity of a King, "one who determines what is right,"
Stretching out--straightening-laying out = boundaries, territory, and
the basis of National Forms.
"REG": physical, linear, spatial associations become "analogue of honesty,
justice, government and social order." And between the physical and abstract
senses of this complex-REG, are a small group of cognates which signify
"Ruler" or "King." (French "ROI" = king, and is imbedded in "droit," rights/straight.)
"the king rules the land."
A nice nexus: straightness/linear order & linear movement/boundaries/kingship/order/government.
Partridge: core meaning of Proto-Indo-European REG = "To set straight,
to lead or guide straight, hence, as a noun, a true guide, hence a powerful
one, hence a chief, a king; perhaps the basic sense of REG is 'straight
line,' or better, 'a movement straight from one point to another, hence
a movement along a straight line.'"

All this present in the ARTHUR LEGENDS. The Grail is in the Castle
in a Waste Land inhabited by the Fisher King who is "wounded through the
thighs" (a genital injury, or impotent). Restoration of the King, and
renewal of the land, depends on asking the Grail the right question. THE
KING AND THE LAND ARE ONE.

The subtext about "Britain" in the legend is about Sovereignty: who
holds the land and by what right? In an ancient Irish Bardic tale Echach
Muigmedoin: the hero Niall is tested for accession to the throne, what
the Celtic Irish called "the right to rule." An ancient and ugly woman
guards the well. She propositions Niall, who agrees to kiss her, fuck
her: and in so doing she becomes beautiful and tells Niall, "Lordship
is mine, O king of Tara, I am Sovereignty...and your seed shall be over
every clan."

Perhaps ARTHUR comes from ARTH FAWR, THE GREAT BEAR. Great Bear Constellation
is also known as "Arthur's Wain or Wagon"--the vehicle Arthur uses to
circle the pole. Echo hear, back to the circumpolar BEAR CULTS at the
end of the last ice age.

Fate of the king and of the land are inseparable.
The king is responsible for fertility.
The king is married to the land: union with EARTH GODDESS SOVERIGNTY

The mystical union of the monarch and the land symbolized by the
king sitting or standing on a sacred stone during the crowning ceremony.
(Symbolism of Excalibur in the Stone or Anvil.) The most sacred kingly
site in Ireland: Hill of Tara, which is also a Neolithic site, "The Mound
of Hostages" = location of the Lis Fal, a stone said to cry out when the
correct king is crowned.

SUMERIAN CULTURE: TIGRIS-EUPHRATES VALLEY:
-4,000: irrigation permitted expansion of agriculture. Sufficient grain
surplus to finance a management class. need + population expansion + social
organization works the eclipse of the "utopian" neolithic village practice
where low-production, individual units, no organization and control provide
one of the basic "memories" of Eden. rapid development sumerian civilization
(before "protoliterate period, -3,000): includes irrigation, wheeled vehicles,
sailing ships, metallurgy, oven baked and wheel-turned pottery. The logic
of this development has to do with the growth of these agglomerations,
their interaction, differentiation of classes (management, trade, merchant,
etc.) and conflict among the cities and/or city-states.
-4000: Mediterranean seafaring starts off, carrying Sumer civilization
everywhere
-3000: writing, traction plow

-2000: Barbarian attacks increase on all these centers of civilization.
HILLSMEN rival PASTORAL/NOMAD PEOPLE as predator-raiders-conquers of plains
civilizations. This dynamic, of civilization=sedentary=agricultural surplus+comforts+softness+trade
(which spreads the news of riches and comforts and softness to the less
developed), and stimulates the movement of less-developed toward the centers,
etc., is crucial throughout this period.

-1800-1000BC = Bronze Age in Europe. "High Barbarism," which incorporates
many detachable elements of the River Valley Civilizations

-1856: great BON spiritual master Xenrab Miwo. reformed and synthesized
the various Bon traditions, replaced animal sacrifice with the use of
ritual statuettes, and introducing the earliest known form of Dzogchen
teachings (Yandagbai Sembon,) a form less sophisticated than the 3 Series
of Garab Dorje (55AD).